Can You Engineer A Video Game With Makey Makey?

Make STEM education fun! Start out easy with a banana piano. First, setup takes seconds. Then make game controllers, musical instruments, and countless inventions. Advance to additional inputs and multi-key remapping up to 18 keys. Check out Makey Makey Classic and try our STEM challenge.

What you need per person/group...

• Can You Engineer A Video Game With Makey Makey? Creator Sheet
• Makey Makey For Each Group
• Laptop/Computer
• Play-Doh
• Account With Scratch (To Code Your Game)

What you need to do...

• Students will begin by picking groups and/or working independently. Pass out a Creator Sheet to each student or group.
• Have all items passed out at tables (Computer, Makey Makey, & Playdoh).
• Students will begin by deciding what type of video game they want to create - write down a couple of ideas within their Creator Sheet.
• Once students have narrowed down their game, they will then need to come up with the purpose of the game and the characters, any obstacles they might encounter

Then the building of the game begins...

• Students will first begin to create their game by going to Scratch.
• Students can code their game within Scratch and build the controller at the same time OR build the game and then connect the controller. 

Building of the controller...

• First step to build your controller, we need to make a controller - take the Makey Makey and the 4 alligator clips and attach to the correct arrow keys.
• Next, take the Play-Doh and make shapes out of them and then place them in the position you want them to be.
• Then you will connect the clips to the Play-Doh (buttons) - make sure you connect them to the right arrow key.
• Connect to the Makey Makey - the red wire will connect to the computer and the Makey Makey.

Bring Scratch & Makey Makey together...

• Go to your game within Scratch.
• Click the green flag on the game and begin. 
• Remember the gray cord needs to be in your hand in order for the controller to work.

We would love to see you try this STEM Challenge. Share your results with us through social media!

Happy Making, 

Maker Maven